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Almanac: Day: 302 / Week: 44
October
Averages: 63° \ 31°
Holiday Observances
Today:
Hermit Day
Internet Day
National Cat Day
National Forgiveness
Day
National Frankenstein
Day
World Psoriasis Day
++
Republic Day (Turkey-1923)
Quote of
the Day
Historical
Highlights for Today
529 BC -
Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, declares the 1st charter of human rights in
the world also known as Cyrus Cylinder
1390 - First
trial for witchcraft in Paris
1618 - English
adventurer, Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded
1792 - Mount
Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by
Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the
Willamette River
1833 - 1st
US college fraternity to have a fraternity house founded
1863 - International
Committee of Red Cross forms (Nobel 1917, 1944, 1963)
1929 - "Black
Tuesday" Stock Market crashes triggers "Great Depression"
1942 - Alaska Highway completed
1945 - First
ball point pen goes on sale, 57 years after it is patented
1955 - Belgium
signs accord for 5 day work week (45 hours)
1956 - Chet
Huntley & David Brinkley, NBC News, team up
1958 - Boris
Pasternak refuses Nobel Prize for literature
1964 - Star of India & other jewels are stolen
in NY
1964 - The United Republic of Tanganyika &
Zanzibar renamed United Republic of Tanzania
1966
- National Organization of Women founded
1974 - Law
bans discrimination of sex or marital status in credit application
1988 - 2,000
US anti-abortion protesters arrested for blocking clinics
1994 - National Museum of American Indian opens
(NYC)
1998 - 77-year old John Glenn become the oldest
person to go into space
2012 - Hurricane
Sandy makes landfall in NJ- 110 deaths and $50 billion in damage
·
• •
♫
Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
My
Rambling Thoughts
Nice day weather-wise. Strange day otherwise.
I got up late, about 6:30 and looked out the bedroom window.
Decided it was time to wash the upstairs windows as they were really dirty. So
I took out the one window in each bedroom, washed the 2 windows inside and out.
Nice to see clearly out of them again.
Then I turned on my computer. I have this really cool mouse that
hasn’t really worked right since I got the new computer. It has two buttons on
the side of the mouse that should let the user change go forward or back when
on a webpage. I didn’t use it that often on my old computer but it was a nice
shortcut. Anyway…so I decided today is the day to make it work. I go to the
internet machine and find a site that has the latest drivers for the mouse. It
says that my computer has registry problems that is causing the problem. They
will do a one-time fix for $300. They also say that I have some strange foreign
IP addresses that log on to my computer. Scary. I decline. Then I go to the
mouse’s company website and they connect me to a tech guy for free. He gets
onto my computer and shows me the problems. About 10 different foreign IP
address have logged onto my computer this week. He can connect me to a Microsoft
tech who can fix it and give me lifetime protection for $300. I go ahead and do
it. It takes about an hour while the guy in India or somewhere is working and I
can watch what he is doing to my computer. He also connects another guy to my
computer to make the mouse work. Interesting. Then he calls me and has me check
my mouse, which is now working fine. And the windows protection that was
somehow turned off is now turned back on. Cool, expensive, but cool. Then he talks
to me about how the protection I bought from Geek Squad when I bought the
computer had never been optimized which is what probably allowed the malware.
Really? He optimized it for me. Geek Squad sold me the damn program when I
bought the computer and never said anything about ‘optimizing’ it. After I
downloaded the program, no message to optimize. The guy, a certified Microsoft
tech, also said that Geek Squad is not Microsoft certified so if I had taken
the computer to them to fix, they probably wouldn’t have known how to do it but
would have still charged me and told me it was fixed. Scary again.
·
• •
Game Center (answers
at the end of post)
Brain
Teasers
|
What
is this Rebus?
g
da wn
n i t t e g |
Found on
You Tube with some relevance to today
OK Then…
·
• •
Paraphernalia
4 the Brain:
Brief
History…
Hitler
Danced a Jig after Taking over France
In 1940 Adolf Hitler went to a defeated Paris to bask in the glory
of having conquered France. A famous
film clip shows him dancing a jig in joy at this accomplishment. In reality, the film clip was an altered
piece of film of Hitler merely walking, but played back and forth to make him
appear to be dancing. This myth is so
pervasive photos of it appear in history books as genuine, the authors unaware
of the propaganda trick.
Educator’s
Answers…
“If you really cared about kids, you wouldn’t worry about the
salary.”
I love my students. I love teaching. I also love being able to
support my family and feed my kids.
Flagstaff,
AZ History…
100 YEARS
AGO
-A big motor truck from the Southern California Auto Club was here
Saturday posting signs along the Old Trails Route. They are neat and contain
all the information necessary for the traveler over this great scenic route.
-There was heavy rain both Sunday and Monday nights and Jack Frost
is creeping in occasionally. Tuesday there was a light coat of snow on the San
Francisco Peaks.
Harper’s
Index…
Factor by which a woman is more likely to interrupt a woman that
to interrupt a man: 2.9
Halloween
Facts…
-Halloween is thought to have originated around 4000 B.C., which
means Halloween has been around for over 6,000 years.
-In 1970, a five-year-old boy Kevin Toston allegedly ate Halloween
candy laced with heroin. Investigators later discovered the heroin belonged to
the boy’s uncle and was not intended for a Halloween candy.
-In 1974, eight-year-old Timothy O’Bryan died of cyanide poisoning
after eating Halloween candy. Investigators later learned that his father had
taken out a $20,000 life insurance policy on each of his children and that he
had poisoned his own son and also attempted to poison his daughter.
Law
Facts…
-In Breton, Alabama, there is a law on the town's books against
riding down the street in a motorboat.
-The people most often killed in robberies are the robbers.
Religious
Facts…
-Pope Francis was once a nightclub bouncer.
-There is a Swedish religion called Kopimism whose sole tenet is
that all knowledge should be available to everyone - and thus, using CTRL+C and
CTRL+V are sacred acts.
Rules of Thumb…
CUTTING
FIREWOOD
One person, working
alone, can cut, haul, and stack about a cord of firewood a day.
Unusual
Fact of the Day…
100,000,000,000
solar neutrinos pass through every square inch of your body every second.
·
• •
Joke-of-the-day
SICK DAYS:
We will no longer accept a doctor statement as proof of sickness. If you are
able to go to the doctor, you are able to come to work.
SURGERY:
Operations are now banned. As long as you are an employee here, you need all
your organs. You should not consider removing anything. We hired you intact. To
have something removed constitutes a breach of employment.
PERSONAL DAYS:
Each employee will receive 104 personal days a year. They are called Saturday
and Sunday.
VACATION DAYS:
All employees will take their vacation at the same time every year. The
vacation days are as follows: Jan. 1, July 4 & Dec. 25
BEREAVEMENT LEAVE:
This is no excuse for missing work. There is nothing you can do for dead
friends, relatives or coworkers. Every effort should be made to have
non-employees attend to the arrangements. In rare cases where employee
involvement is necessary, the funeral should be scheduled in the late
afternoon. We will be glad to allow you to work through your lunch hour and
subsequently leave one hour early, provided your share of the work is done
enough.
OUT FROM YOUR OWN DEATH:
This will be accepted as an excuse. However, we require at least two weeks
notice, as it is your duty to train your own replacement.
RESTROOM USE:
Entirely too much time is being spent in the restroom. In the future, we will
follow the practice of going in alphabetical order. For instance, all employees
whose names begin with 'A' will go from 8:00 to 8:20, employees whose names
begin with 'B' will go from 8:20 to 8:40 and so on. If you're unable to go at
your allotted time, it will be necessary to wait until the next day when your
turn comes again. In extreme emergencies employees may swap their time with a
coworker. Both employees' supervisors in writing must approve this exchange. In
addition, there is now a strict 3-minute time limit in the stalls. At the end
of three minutes, an alarm will sound, the toilet paper roll will retract, and
the stall door will open.
LUNCH BREAK:
Skinny people get an hour for lunch as they need to eat more so that they can
look healthy, normal size people get 30 minutes for lunch to get a balanced
meal to maintain the average figure. Fat people get 5 minutes for lunch because
that's all the time needed to drink a Slim Fast and take a diet pill. Sondra
gets none.
DRESS CODE:
It is advised that you come to work dressed according to your salary, if we see
you wearing $350 Prada sneakers and carrying a $600 Gucci bag we assume you are
doing well financially and therefore you do not need a raise.
Thank you for your loyalty to our company. We are here to provide a positive
employment experience. Therefore, all questions comments, concerns, complaints,
frustrations, irritations, aggravations, insinuations, allegations,
accusations, contemplations, consternations or input should be directed
elsewhere. Have a nice week.
-- Management
Yep, It
Really Happened
KNOXVILLE,
Tenn. (UPI)
It's only natural to assume small-brained animals like fish would
care about little outside of the quest for food and mates, but according to a
new study by researchers at the University of Tennessee, some of them -- like
cichlid fish species -- like to play.
Of course, scientists can't ask a fish if it is having fun; they must develop a
definition of fun that works in the context of the animal kingdom. That's what
Gordon Burghardt, an evolutionary biologist at Tennessee, has done, allowing
him to finger such organisms as wasps, reptiles and invertebrates as capable of
play -- of having having fun.
"Play is repeated behavior that is incompletely functional in the context
or at the age in which it is performed and is initiated voluntarily when the
animal or person is in a relaxed or low-stress setting," said Burghardt,
lead author of the new study on cichlid fish.
While studying three cichlid fish over the course of two years, Burghardt and
his colleagues observed a behavior that fits his definition of play. The three
fish would periodically strike at a bottom-weighted thermometer, and would do
so regardless of the presence or absence of food or other fish. The researchers
believe the fish, like other animals, are drawn to the righting motion that
happens when the thermometer is pushed down and then returns to its original
position.
"We have observed octopus doing this with balls by pulling them underwater
and watching them pop back up again," Burghardt said. "This reactive
feature is common in toys used for children and companion animals."
Burghardt says it's important for scientists to readjust their understanding of
play and see unexplained behaviors as part of an animal's evolutionary
development -- not random.
"Play is an integral part of life and may make a life worth living,"
Burghardt concluded.
The study was published this week in the journal Ethology.
Somewhat
Useless Information
It
is said that bats cannot take off from the ground, but is it true?
The
answer is “yes”. Most bats cannot take off from the ground. They spend their
entire lives flying or upside down.
In
addition, there are only two known species of bats that have the ability to
walk on the ground: the lesser short-tailed bat and the American common vampire
bat.
+++
Five
things that happily married couples don’t do
Have
you ever wondered what are the tips for a happy marriage? Well, there may be
many but we have gathered and present you things that happily married couples
never do!
-They
have one of those wild tempestuous marriages and they don’t trust each other.
-They
don’t find joy in little things, which may be a concert or sitting down and
watching TV together.
-When
arguing, they don’t fight fair, using unkind words.
-They
don’t feel lucky having each other.
-They
don’t support each other.
·
• •
Check
Your Calendar
Observances
This Week:
--- 24-30
Disarmament Week
Prescription Errors Education & Awareness Week
World Origami Days
International Magic Week
Asexuality Week
Give Wildlife a Brake! Week
Kids Care Week
National Infertility Awareness Week
·
• •
Today’s
Events through History
1682 - William
Penn lands at what is now Chester Pennsylvania
1787 - Opera
"Don Giovanni" is produced (Prague)
1832 - The PIANKASHAW, and WEA Indians receive land in
Kansas, in exchange for their lands in Illinois, and Missouri
1904 - First
intercity trucking service (Colorado City & Snyder, Texas)
1905 - Hottentot
chief Hendrik Witbooi fataly injured
1960 - Muhammad
Ali's (Cassius Clay) 1st professional fight
1969 - Supreme
Court orders end to all school desegregation "at once"
2002 - Ho
Chi Minh City ITC Inferno, a fire destroys a luxurious department store
·
• •
Birthday’s
Today
Ellen
Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia is 77
Melba
Moore, [Beatrice], singer/actress is 70
Richard
Dreyfuss, Brooklyn, actor (Mr Holland's Opus) is 68
Kate
Jackson, actress (Charlie's Angels) is 67
Winona
Ryder, [Horowitz], actress (Edward Scissorhand) is 44
Brendan
Fehr, Canadian actor (Bones) is 38
Remembered
for being born today
Harriet
Powers, US, slave/writer (Creation of Animals) (1837-1910)
Albert
von Rothschild, Austrian banker (1844-1911)
Charles
Ebbets, (namesake of Ebbets Field, Brooklyn) (1859-1925)
Fanny
Brice, singing comedienne (Ziegeld Follies, Baby Snooks) (1891-1951)
[Paul] Joseph Goebbels,
Nazi Minister of Information and Propaganda (1897-1945)
Betty
Evans Grayson, softball pitcher (Hall of Fame 1959) (1925-1979)
Johnny
Lewis, actor (Sons of Anarchy), (1983-2012)
·
• •
Historical
Obits Today
Woody
Herman, bandleader/composer (Thundering Herds), 1987, @74
Dwight B.
Waldo, American educator and historian, 1939, @74
Walter
Raleigh, English scholar/poet/historian, beheaded for treason, 1618, @65
Joseph
Pulitzer, American newspaperman, 1911, @64
·
• •
Brain Teasers Answers
Getting up before the crack
of dawn.
·
• •
Disclaimer: All opinions are
mine…feel free to agree or disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet
sites and is usually checked with at least one other source, but I have learned
that every site contains mistakes and sadly once the information is out there,
many sites simply copy it and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events
occurring before the Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be
totally accurate.
§…And That Is All for Now…§
